The Circle Line (21 page)

‘Sam,’ he said, ‘I am Tarak Everune. I owe my life to you and your friends. I am honoured to meet you at long last.’

‘At last?’ said Sam. ‘How long have you known about me?’

‘For several years and for several thousands of years. Time is a strange thing. But would you mind if we found somewhere else to discuss it all? I'm rather cold. There is another line within the building, if you would be so kind as to remove the rubble so that we can reach it.’

‘Of course.’ Sam said and pushed himself out of the snow. Kya and Weewalk lifted Tarak between them and they supported each other. Sam noticed, with an irrational burst of faint jealousy, that Kya held the old man particularly tenderly, looking at him with obvious fondness and affection.

Sam tensed and felt his body complain but he moved away the chunks of concrete to create a space where the building had stood before. When there was room he opened the line that Tarak had mentioned. Stepping through they arrived in an old timber-framed house on a fairly normal looking village street. There was soon a fire blazing in the grate and the four of them huddled round it, wrapped in blankets and sipping tea which Weewalk had produced from the bag that he still carried.

When he was judged to be well enough and warm enough to speak they let Tarak begin to talk.

‘Well,’ said the secret keeper, ‘I am sure there are some things you wish to ask of me. Which question will be first?’

‘What happened to Ferus?’ asked Sam immediately. ‘How did I survive?’

‘Aha, now that is just about my last secret. It is the heart of the whole business. Perhaps I had better start at the beginning.’

‘Although you probably know of me as the last in the order of the Secret Keepers, that is wrong. I am also the first of that order and, during my travels through the lines and through time, I have found others and gained their support. I did this because, whilst in another time, I became aware of some very important and incredible information. Part of it I think you already know for I admitted it to Ferus, as he needed to believe that I had divulged every last secret I had.

Yes. Mu is no more another world than last week in London is another world. It is merely another place in time, albeit a time a long way away from here. A time that exists after something terrible happened. This world, as you know it, is doomed. It seems that there is nothing we can do about it. Something out there, out in space, is about to pop. The event will not just damage the instant world but the effects will be felt through history and throughout the future. That cannot be changed. It will create the rips in space time that you know as lines. Our knowledge of the lines is still scant. We are still at the very beginning of discovering where they go and what the effect of our using them is.

‘So, if Mu is simply the future, then it must be inhabited by those who survived. Sam, some, but by no means all, of the people of Mu are your ancestors.’

Sam looked startled.

‘Of course, not just you. There will be many who live and repopulate the world but there was an ancestral line that I discovered which was of particular interest to me. That line was part of the history of one of the greatest tyrants for a thousand years. Ferus could never have known that he would not have been able to kill the reason he ever came to live. Have you ever heard of the grandfather paradox Sam?’

Sam shook his head.

‘Well, imagine you invented a time machine and travelled back to a time before your parents were born. There you encountered your grandfather as a young man. Let's say that, for whatever reason, you tried to kill that man before he fathered one of your parents. What would happen? One of your parents would never be born and as a result, you would never be born.’ He pointed a finger at Sam's forehead. ‘But if you never existed, how did you come to kill your grandfather? It was this that was Ferus' downfall. He tried to kill a relative. Albeit a distant one.’

‘What? Ferus is my family?’ asked Sam unbelieving.

‘Yes, and he was killed by a paradox’ said Tarak with a laugh. ‘One day, Sam, you will have children and they will have children and so on and so on, until, sadly, Ferus will be born. But, he will never be able to kill you for to do so would destroy his own existence and that is, I believe what happened. That blast was the result. I had decided that there were two possibilities, that things would always simply go wrong for Ferus in his attempts to kill you or that it would actually rebound if he used enough power. It seems both were true. His efforts to get to you never quite succeeded did they? But when he had a clear shot and put all of his power into you, it backfired. I just had to ensure that he was acting totally independently, without any borrowed power from the Riven King. It was lucky that my cell was underground and that these two came through to rescue me. I doubt we would have survived otherwise. In a battle against Ferus you, Sam, could be hurt but he could never kill you. You were invincible.’

Sam looked across to Kya who seemed as stunned as him.

‘And here I have a confession and an apology to make. In predicting this, I allowed myself to be captured and I also allowed my secrets to be discovered by Ferus. It was a tremendous risk. He had to think that you were a real threat to him and the Riven King. That you fulfilled some prophecy. Ferus had reached a point where he was so powerful that the only thing which could destroy him was his own power. Get the fire hot enough and even iron melts. Sam, I'm sorry but it was my information that led Ferus to pursue you so relentlessly. I led him to believe that he needed to kill you. That you were special. The subject of a prophecy.’

Sam felt hollow. He had been a pawn in a game.

‘You were not alone in the risk. I gambled with my own daughter in entrusting her to find you.’ At this Kya moved to him and he put his arm around her.

Weewalk spoke then. 'Is the prophecy real? We thought Sam was the one!'

‘Well, he may be important.' said Tarak 'There are many prophecies but whether Sam's absorption of the powers he has is relevant remains to be seen. It can be interpreted in a number of ways. I just needed Ferus to believe that it was about him to bring them together. But I have more secrets, and good news I hope. Speaking of grandfathers leads me on nicely to another relation of yours, Sam. I believe you knew him as Adam Hain.’

Sam looked up quickly.

‘Did he leave you anything important when he died?’

‘What? How do you know about my grandfather?’

‘Please, humour me a moment. I have been looking forward to this. Did he leave you anything?’

‘He left me a house but it burnt down. He didn't have anything else.’

‘There must have been something else. A book perhaps?’

Sam thought then stopped in surprise. ‘Wait, there was something.’ He pulled his rucksack over from where it lay in a corner of the room.

‘I put this in here on the day of the funeral and then forgot all about it. It was in a separate pocket inside so I never looked at it.’

He withdrew the package still wrapped in brown paper just as it had been when he had been given it by the solicitor in church, all that time ago. Nervously, Sam tore at the paper until it came away. He found his hands were shaking. The book inside had a soft brown leather cover. He held it for a moment. He still owned something of his grandfathers. He didn't care if it was nothing more than an empty book. It had come from the man who had protected him his entire life. With a deep breath he opened the book to the first page. Just three words were written on that page.

I am Hadan.

Chapter Sixteen

Sam sat outside the house, hugging his knees on a wooden bench, looking out into the garden. He heard someone approach and he turned to see Kya. She came and sat next to him, her legs dangling over the edge of the bench. She pressed her body close to him and swung her legs slightly but didn't say anything. After a minute she rested her head on Sam's shoulder and he felt his stomach flip.

‘Kya, no.' he said moving away. 'I... I can't. Not after the way your father has treated everyone. Why didn't you tell me more about what you knew?'

'I honestly didn't know much.' she said 'My father told me that he would be captured, that only you could save him. That I had to take you to him. He said that if Ferus ever found him that I had to find you, and bring you here. That only you could save him. That only you could save us all.'

Sam tried to calm the anger that been burning inside him. He had been used. With effort he checked himself and took a deep breath.

'Your father doesn't care about who he uses to get what he wants, whatever that is. He's responsible for all of this, just so that he could use me as a weapon to get rid of Ferus. He didn't know for sure that it would even work. Kya, I hate him for what he's done.'

'He was tortured, Sam.'

'He allowed himself to be captured and tortured so that Ferus would think that there was some stupid prophecy about me! So that Ferus would try to kill me! My parents died because of it!'

'He was doing it for the greater good. He knew that Ferus had to be stopped. You know what Ferus did to him, to us? Do you? Do you know? He took my mother. Not long after I was born Ferus took my mother and he tortured her for a week before he killed her. He let everyone know he was doing it to lure my father out to him. To get him to reveal the secrets he held. But my father didn't go. He couldn't risk Ferus getting hold of the information he held. So, he left her there. But I don't blame him. It was Ferus who was responsible. Do you realise the risk he took in eventually letting himself get captured?'

'I didn't know about your mother. But it still doesn't make it right.' said Sam. He was quiet for a minute then he said softly 'I've read more of the book. Hadan left me what information he could, but it wasn't much. He didn't know a great deal when he was pushed through that line. It's a sad book. He tried to tell me to my face more than a couple of times, but he realised that it just made him sound mad and he was extremely worried about changing the order of events for the worse. Perhaps, perhaps if he'd known he was about to, you know, die and I'd been at his bedside when he went it would have been different. Instead he went suddenly in his sleep without ever pointing me to the clues that he had put in place.

‘The journal was his way of telling me what I needed to know. The page which we came across in Professor Keel's laboratory is still there. At some point I guess I'll tear it out and it will end up in the Professor's postbox.’

‘Will you leave anything else?’ asked Kya.

‘I don't think so. My grandfather, Hadan, made the decision that that was the right information to leave. It all works out. If we hadn’t taken the line in the Deeps then I would never have gained the powers I did in Montauk and I would not have come to face Ferus in Tunguska. Hadan might still be here and alive now, and who knows what that would mean, but it would almost certainly mean that I would not exist.

‘I will, at some point, find a line and I will leave that poem in the right place where my grandfather will find it in the library. I know he'll make the right decision. If I told my past self what was going to happen would I go through with it?  Actually, Kya, I suddenly think that I need you to do this. Here.’ Sam tore the page from the journal. ‘Will you ensure that that page gets to Professor Keel in time for our arrival?’

‘Can't we do it together? I'm coming with you!’ said Kya.

‘I think I need to go on ahead alone for now.’ said Sam.

Kya was quiet for several minutes. Then said ‘What happened in that lab?’

‘Well, Jak was pushing Hadan to a line that would have killed him had he entered it. At the last moment I managed to knock Hadan sideways and he slid through another of those portals and ended up where he did. If I hadn't I would have ceased to exist. So would Ferus. Then Ferus wouldn't have sent Jak to follow us. It makes my head hurt to think about it.

Anyway, Hadan tried for a while to find a way back but with no presence to open a line or any way to contact us he became stuck. I think in the end he became used to it. He settled down, married, had a child and eventually became a grandparent. It must have been the shock of a lifetime to realise that the grandchild was me. Perhaps he realised before. It probably made him pretty uncomfortable to be reunited with a life he had given up as lost. In some way it must just have been too painful for him to talk about. Looking back I can see that he tried to tell me but he could just never get it across. He rebuilt the house himself. It was abandoned and tumbled down when he found it. It must have been agony for him, to live so close to a line, to know it was there, but to never be able to find out what lay at the end.’

Sam picked up the book and turned it over in his hands.

‘Did you realise Adam Hain is an anagram of I am Hadan? This journal even tells me about my own name. I've never seen my birth certificate. I always assumed that Sam was short for Samuel, but I'm just Sam. Sam Hain. Samhain is the name of an old festival celebrated on Halloween, the day I met Hadan. Samhain is about the end of the summer, and the start of the period of darkness. It's a time when the barrier between worlds was thought to thin, allowing ghosts to cross into our own realm. I think he used things like that to reassure himself that he was giving me information.’

Sam shook his head. It all seemed so incredible.

‘Hadan had faith in me all along. He never knew how the story would end. As a young man he never knew or even suspected where he would end up. As an older man his experience of me ended in that laboratory in Montauk. But he had faith. He knew I would find the powers and make it that far. I wonder when he first realised about me. It must have been when my parents died, or when they named me perhaps. He chose my surname when he had to create a conventional identity that would allow him to live as part of normal society so maybe he even suspected then.’

Sam looked down at the scar running up his finger and along his forearm.

‘He would never have known that Ferus was his descendent. Imagine if he'd known!’

Kya tried to snuggle in closer to him and Sam sighed sadly.

‘Kya, I can't. I really like you but I can't. Not with the way that your father is using people. He just wants revenge! I just can't be around you. Besides, how can I ever get into a relationship knowing what my future will produce. Knowing that one day Ferus will be born because of me.’

Kya drew back, startled.

‘I know what my father did was wrong and reckless but you have to see what he's trying to do. No-one has seen as much of the future as him. It's the greater good, Sam, always for the greater good. All for the future of men. And he hates that he has to do it.’

‘It caused my parents death! How do you know he's even telling the truth now? What is the real prophecy anyway? I can't do it, Kya. I can't stay with you, or him. And I can't allow Ferus to exist.’

‘I don't think you'll have much say Sam Hain.’ she said crossly ‘I think destiny will guide you more closely than you know. Besides you know Ferus' days are numbered.’

With that, she rose and walked away, leaving Sam alone.

Weewalk came then and sat next him. Tarak stood nearby but didn't venture close. He looked completely different. Gone was the straggly beard and baggy clothes. His beard was closely trimmed and his hair, now more brown than grey, was neatly brushed. Colour had returned to his cheeks. He looked slim and handsome.

‘So, you're heading off?’ Weewalk said.

‘Yes’, said Sam, firing a look of disgust at Tarak. ‘I, I need to get away.’

Weewalk clapped him on the shoulder.

‘I understand’, he said, and Sam saw tears in the creases around the kobold's eyes. Then his own vision blurred and he hugged the small figure.

Three days after the explosion which had almost killed him, but in another year entirely, Sam stood alone before a new portal. He had been able to sense it from far away. It led far into the future. He gathered his power and focused it where he knew the door would appear. The entrance materialised before him. He paused for a few moments feeling the familiar tingle of electricity as it entered his body. Warmth ran up his spine. Then, setting his jaw, he stepped through.

He arrived on a wide plain, a sea of yellow grass, devoid of trees. The sun seemed to be just rising above the horizon and a thin mist nestled in small valleys and folds in the landscape. Sam looked over the grassy plain and sighed. It was difficult to continue now that he knew the awful, almost incomprehensible truth. Mankind as he knew it was doomed. Many millions of lives snuffed out in an instant by the supernova that would strip the earth bare. Millions more would die afterwards of sickness, starvation and natural disaster. More deaths would follow as the radiation caused both man and beast to warp and change. There was nothing he could do except avoid it in another time. Could he save others, take them through a line perhaps? He didn't know. But here, in this future, man was beginning to find his feet again. They were starting to take a stand. He had never moved so far into his own future before, to a time after the supernova that had changed the world forever. In the far distance he could just make out the highest roofs of a distant city. Turning toward it, he began to walk.

A body lay, discarded and broken, at the edge of a pit in the depths of the Rivenrok Complex. Torn and bloody, it looked as though a thousand knives had ripped at the flesh. A single rat sniffed at it, unsure whether it was safe to begin to gnaw at the bones. As the rat scurried over the lifeless body it disturbed a piece of torn and bloodied cloth on the back of the head. As it did so a piece of crystal glittered, lodged deep within the skull of the hapless victim. The rat sniffed again, interested at the smell of blood, but suddenly wary. Then, just as the rat was about to begin its feast a finger twitched and the rat lifted into the air as though picked up by an invisible hand. It was thrown away with a squeak. Aleksy felt his presence envelop him and his anger burned more fiercely than ever.